June 26, 2009

"Intimacy on a Sunday Afternoon" [by Kimberly Steele]

Intimacy on a Sunday Afternoon

After examining all the ways to contemplatesomething (like a blueprint, or your leaving)I spend several minutes discussing my optionswith a small bathroom mirror,beneath which lies a medicine cabinet,beneath which lies a perfect rectangleof glossy paint (whiter than the rest)beneath which lies drywall, termites,and possibly mold. I mention A. Einstein,who stole secrets from God and was baffledby women. I consider the years he spentlearning equations he did not understand,to prove intuitions that nobody else did.I cite T. Edison and telephones, B. Gatesand Windows, and how easily I could reachyou now, if you weren’t so hard to touch.I think about effort and interference,progress and stasis. And when I have liton a strategy — a way to feel knowledge today —I sit in a comfortable chair someone elseput together, before a writing machinewhose programming I do not understand,or pull out some paper someone elsemanufactured, and reach for a penwhose ink I am unable to duplicate,and I give you this.

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"Intimacy on a Sunday Afternoon" [by Kimberly Steele]

Intimacy on a Sunday Afternoon

After examining all the ways to contemplatesomething (like a blueprint, or your leaving)I spend several minutes discussing my optionswith a small bathroom mirror,beneath which lies a medicine cabinet,beneath which lies a perfect rectangleof glossy paint (whiter than the rest)beneath which lies drywall, termites,and possibly mold. I mention A. Einstein,who stole secrets from God and was baffledby women. I consider the years he spentlearning equations he did not understand,to prove intuitions that nobody else did.I cite T. Edison and telephones, B. Gatesand Windows, and how easily I could reachyou now, if you weren’t so hard to touch.I think about effort and interference,progress and stasis. And when I have liton a strategy — a way to feel knowledge today —I sit in a comfortable chair someone elseput together, before a writing machinewhose programming I do not understand,or pull out some paper someone elsemanufactured, and reach for a penwhose ink I am unable to duplicate,and I give you this.